Dance Theater Cinema in Modern Culture

Theater
Place for plays-a building, room, or other setting where plays or other dramatic
presentation are perform
One of the oldest and most popular forms of entertainment, in which actors perform live
for an audience on a stage or in an other space designated for the performance.
1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Elements of Theater :
Fundamental to the theater experience is the act of seeing and being seen; in fact, the
word theater comes from the Greek word theatron, meaning "seeing place." Throughout the
history of world cultures, actors have used a variety of locations for theater, including
amphitheaters, churches, marketplaces, garages, street corners, warehouses, and formal
buildings. It is not the building that makes theater but rather the use of space for actors to
imitate human experience before audiences.
In addition to the actor and the audience in a space, other elements of theater include a
written or improvised text, costumes, scenery, lights, sound, and properties (props). Most
theatrical performances require the collaborative efforts of many creative people working
toward a common goal: the production.
1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Mask of Comedy and Tragedy
FPG International, LLC/Elizabeth Simpson
Masks of Comedy and Tragedy
These two masks have come to symbolize the theater and its two major dramatic
categories, comedy and tragedy. Masks have played an important part in the history of
drama since the time of the ancient Greeks. They were originally used to allow the actors to
clearly convey emotions such as anger, joy, or sorrow to the entire audience, and they
made it easier for men to portray female characters.
Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2004. 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All
rights reserved.
Purposes of Theater
Theater can serve many ends. It can be designed to entertain, instruct, motivate,
persuade, and even shock. But whatever the intentions of the director, performers, and
crew, the result depends on the interaction with an audience. The audience for theater
differs from the reader of a novel or the viewer of a painting in that it assembles as a group
at a given time and place to share in the performance with the actors and all the
surrounding elements of light, sound, music, costumes, and scenery. The audience affects
the performance by providing the performers with immediate feedback, such as laughter,
tears, applause, or silence. Each night there is continuous interaction between the
auditorium and the stage.
Some audiences want only to be entertained. Others want the theater to provide new
insight and understanding about political, social, or personal issues. Throughout history

theater has reflected and, at times, commented on the society in which it takes place.
Modern theater Production
Microsoft Theater Personnel
The Producer
In commercial and nonprofit theaters, the producer is the person who puts together the
financing, management staff, and the artistic team to produce the show.

The Director
Directors assume responsibility for the overall interpretation of a script, and they have the
authority to approve, control, and coordinate all the elements of a production.
The Performers
The Designers
Designers collaborate with directors to create an environment for a play. That
environment may be a well-appointed living room or a run-down tenement apartment, or it
may be a nightclub setting or an empty stage for a chorus-line audition. The designers'
work is to shape and fill the stage space and to make the play's world visible and
interesting. In the modern theater various artists are responsible for different design
effects. There are four principal types of designers: scene, costume, lighting, and sound.
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE/Ron Scherl
Scene from La Bohme
In this scene from La Bohme, an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, the set
designer has recreated a romantic version of a 19th-century street in Paris.
The Scene designer
Oregon Shakespeare Festival/David Cooper
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Fairies emerge from doorways in space, and Bottoms bed hangs suspended before the
moon in this 1998 production of A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival in Ashland, Oregon. The set, lighting, staging, and costumes all combine to intensify
the plays enchanted, unreal atmosphere.
The Lighting Designer
Modern stage lighting affects what audiences see. Carefully planned lighting can establish
mood and color, control the audience's focus of attention, and enhance the meaning of the
play.
Costume Designer
The costume designer is the creative artist responsible for the look of the characters and
its contribution to the plays inner meaning. Modern costume design includes a characters
garment, accessories, hairstyle or wig, make up and mask, if required.
Cinema-Place where movies are shown; a building, room, or other setting where movies are

shown
DANCE
It is an art performed by individuals or group of human beings, in which the human body is
the instrument and movement is the medium, the medium is the stylized, and the entire
dance work is characterized by form.
- Historian Richard
Motion Picture
Is a series of images that are projected onto a screen to create the illusion of motion

Motion pictures-also called movies, films, or the cinema-are one of the most popular form of
entertainment enabling people to immerse themselves in an imaginary world for
a short period of time.

Arts and Culture in the Modern Era

Introduction
The condition of man has changed more radically in the last hundred years. The turn of
the century showed marked advances in technology. These advances led to the
mechanization, so intense that in turn has affected the social, economic, and political
structure of society.
The rapidly changing environment due to new discoveries inventions affect the art, too.
These changes in the social order, ideas, beliefs and activities of man are reflected in
the works of the artists. Their works contributed to the development of the
contemporary society and the understanding of past cultures.

Arts and Its Function in life

In the 20th and 21st centuries, practically every industry, business, and school in the
world require the skills and imagination of an artist. Artists with their artworks and
skills have served mankind for its entire existence. Even during the early civilization, art
had served several functions in human life.
Today, if we look around, we will see that art is everywhere. Art is not only to be found
in museums and galleries, but on the shelves of stores and on television screens around
the world. Art does not only emerge from cloistered painting and sculptures studios, but
from manufacturing companies, film studios, industrial complexes, computers, and
corporations. Art is not only produced by painters, sculptors, printmakers, but also by
talented industrial designers, photographers, fashion experts, color consultants,
craftsmen, computer programmers, and others.
Art is part of our daily lives. There is art in the clothes and accessories we use
everyday. There is also art in the beautiful creations of God such as mountains,
volcanoes, the sound of the waves, swaying leaves, swirling of the wind, and many
more. Man-made and man-designed objects that we use every day are all works of art,
too.
We find art objects in our home, community, church, in trades, and in industry. These
are objects of mans effort to enhance life and lessen the tediousness of everyday

living. These objects also help man to transform the environment into a more
interesting and wonderful place to live in.
Art is not confined to art objects around us. The music we hear, the dances we enjoy,
the films we watch are also works of art. Art exists in all forms of society and in every
generation. Through art, we can express our emotions, experiences, and ideas that are
beyond the reach of language. Our lives would be very dull without art. There is art in
all aspects of mans life.
Art and Religion
Art has always been a part of any religious belief. Inside and outside the church there
are carvings, mural paintings, stained glass windows telling about stories of Christ and
the saints. Music is also used to express devotion. Musicians in modern utilized some
religious subjects in composing praise songs. Some musical plays like Jesus Christ
Superstar are religious in nature. Religious arts strengthen expressed faith or belief.
Art in Government/ Politics
Art is one of the oldest and most important means of expression. In government and
politics, art is always a part of peoples expression of contentment, satisfaction, and
protest. Look at some editorial and political cartoons in newspapers. What is the
purpose of these political cartoonists? They want to express their opinions. In simple
graphic terms, the artists are able to present serious and complicated issues.
Government buildings are also used to display the paintings and murals depicting
government officials, figures, and events which happened in that place. In the second
floor of the Manila City Hall, a mural made by Carlos Francisco depicts events in the
history of Manila.
To express ideological or political comment in the government, some artists use
paintings, photographs posters, theater plays, or cartoons to put across a message.
They encourage and promote social change using their artworks.
Art in Economy Technology
In the fields of industrial design, fashion design, and graphic design, the artists create
designs or artworks that communicate with specific audiences/ consumers. These
artworks are attractive and functional enough to sell products and make profit.
Modern technologies have helped the artists improve their techniques. Graphic design
techniques have improved so much with the development of new media such as acrylic,
epoxies, and alkyds. New techniques have been developed also such as airbrush,
photography, montage, and dye transfer. New materials that have been discovered and
developed helped in the improvement of graphic designs and other artworks such as
plastics, acrylic sheets, dry-transfer, lettering, and mylars.
Modern equipment that has been invented make mass-produced goods more attractive.
Some of these modern equipment are the following:

overhead projector
duplicating machine
laser scanners
computer lasers
thermal and electrostatic photocopiers
digital cameras
Technological advances have perfected and speed up the design and production of
graphic images. These developments help boost the economic condition of any society.

Artworks in the 20th and 21st Centuries

The showing of the works of Cezanne, Van Gogh and other painters signaled the
opening of a new era in the development of modern art. A number of painters formed
themselves into a group called the Fauves or Wild Beasts, headed by Henri Matisse.
These painters seemed to have painted with great enthusiasm and passion. Their
artworks are characterized by strong colors, dynamic brushwork, and expressive depth
of their pictures. These evoked a fantastical, joyous world of heightened emotion and
color.
Fauvism was a movement of rebellion against the rigid realism of academic art. Paul
Gauguin is often associated with the Fauves.
The melancholic, sensual, and beautiful Polynesian woman reaches out to the viewer
through the vibrancy of her bright colors and heavy outlines. Look at the traditional
pose the artist used, he avoided the usual rules of western art. In this artwork, the
forms are simple, the colors clash, and there is no depth or perspective. Gauguin was
among the first to use the color for purely decorative or emotional purposes. His use of
colors and his simplified and nonnaturalistic style of painting had made him one of the
most important contributors to Modern art.
Another painter who has known as Fauves or Wild Beasts due to the primitive
savagery of his style was, Henri Matisse.
The flurry of primary colors dominates this dazzling painting of the interior of the room
with a woman setting a table. The entire surface is harmonized into a vibrant, unified
pattern of pure color that has been skillfully integrated into the structural composition,
saturating the room. The tablecloth merges with the wall, and the forms have been
completely flattened, distorted, and simplified. This enhances the lyrical flow of the
ornamental forms and rainbow-like colors. Matisse has used colors as a mean of
expression. He has deliberately mocked the conventional rules of drawing and
perspective.

Modern Art and Artists of the Philippines and other Countries

Some Filipino artists used western art styles and their works had an influence of
C'ezanne and Gauguin. They depicted their subjects in terms of the technical
considerations of line, color, space, and mass. These Filipino modern artists include:
1. Victorio Edades 4. Cesar Legaspi
2. Vicente Manansala 5. Carlos "Botong" Francisco
3. Hernado Ocampo 6. Romeo Tabuena

These painters represented subject matters that were about the social and economic
life of the Filipinos. They depicted in their works contemporary issues, conditions,
aspirations, and dreams of the Filipino masses. Their themes dealt with poverty;slums;
injustice; exploitation of the poor, of women, of children, of plight of the OFWs; unfair
labor practices; inequality; abuse of political power; oppression; and others.
Different art styles such as the application of expressionism and abstract cubism were
used in their constant search for national identity and in expressing Philippine "realities"
in their artworks. They used bold colors such as black, purple and red to express their
feelings.
Victorio C. Edades is the " Father of Modern Art " in thePhilippines. Edades, Ocampo
and Francisco were the triumvirate of Philippine Modern Art. Their artworks were
influenced by the western styles in the international scenes such as pop art,
maximalism, minimalism, abstraction, expressionism, constructivism, magic realism,
and environmental art.
Other Filipino painters who joined the modernist group are the following:
1. Fernando Zobel 6. Federico Aguilar Alcuaz
2. Arturo Rogelio Luz 7. Lee Aguinaldo
3. Jose Joya 8. Mauro Malang Santos
4. Ang Kiukok 9. Hugo Yonzon, Jr.
5.Anita Magsaysay-Ho
The artworks of thes painters gained international reputation and credibility and can be
found in prestigious galleries, museums, and private collections all over the world.

Feelings Expressed in Artwork

Modern artists use their own experiences to ventilate their feelings through their
artworks. Some of them focus on common problems, issues, and concerns of the
society where they belong. As a medium, they use expressionism to communicate
strong or intense feelings. They also reflect in their works a society on the brink of
socio-political conflicts. A Filipino-Chinese painter, Ang Kiukok, likes to dwell on subject
matters showing the harsh, disturbing, morbid realities affecting people in
the Philippines. He expresses anger and frustration in his paintings.
Vincent Van Gogh in his Starry Night expressed a special feeling. His painting displayed stars
swirling together and he used bold jagged strokes. Rough movements were also shown. He used
gloomy colors like blue or black and sad colors to convey scary or strange feelings. The swirling brush
strokes, the lines, colors and shapes tell something about the scene in his painting.